You joined VSP Global in 2018 after about 25 years in the health care industry . What attracted you to this position ?
Basically , two things . One , the purposedriven value system of the organization . The second one is around the connection to health care . First of all , we cover almost 90 million people . We ’ re not-for-profit . We are connected not just to the U . S . but throughout the world , and it ’ s all about providing quality eye care and providing access , and that ’ s been important to me throughout my entire health care career . I ’ ve been in health care for nearly 30 years , working for other nonprofit organizations like Blue Cross plans in Florida , the Philadelphia area and then , most recently , in Minnesota . The fact that we as a company can have an impact on so many people on a national basis and , frankly , even to some degree , a multinational basis and help people get access to eye care and connect it back to health care was so critical to me when I joined VSP .
The importance of that goes back to really my early childhood . … My dad was a union worker . He worked as a shipfitter in a shipyard , basically laying pipe and welding , and my mom was a stay-at-home mom with five kids . She was sick quite a bit when I was growing up . I got to see the interaction with the health care system early on , and for her and for us as a family trying to decide , well , ( if ) you go to the doctor , how much is it gonna cost ? How do we get access ? … When I was like in first grade , my mom finally took me in to see the eye doctor because I wasn ’ t doing so great in school or couldn ’ t catch a ball or whatever the issue seemed to be , and I had such poor vision as a kid . … I couldn ’ t even read the letters on a stop sign . I can remember getting my first pair of glasses … and how it just changed how I saw the world . Here I am working for a company where I get to do that for literally millions of people — I don ’ t do it , the people who work here do it — and I get to help lead an organization that has a positive impact on helping people see . … ( Additionally ), VSP has helped over 3 million people get access to no-cost eyecare and eyewear … from
I get worried about rapid consolidation and maximizing profits . It impacts what people ultimately get delivered to them .
our charitable arm with the Eyes of Hope program .
How has your industry changed in recent years , and how have you helped VSP adapt to or lead the way with this change ?
I inherited a vertically integrated organization . Most people see it as just an insurance company , but we also have a company that makes frames , that makes lenses for those glasses , a software company ( Eyefinity ) that provides electronic health records and practice-management tools for doctors . We had a small retail arm , online retail , and we were just doing some on-site clinics for some of our large employers . My job was to really focus on two areas . One , make sure we had a good strategy going forward and get the whole organization to rally around it . The second one was about executing quickly .
The reason for quick execution was because of some key areas of change in our industry . … ( There is ) tons of market consolidation , whether it ’ s insurance companies consolidating , frame companies consolidating , doctor practices ( consolidating ). Most eye doctors are independent , private practice doctors , and they ’ re being consolidated by private equity . We needed to make sure we were going to be part of that solution , helping the network , helping the doctors and helping the industry through some of this consolidation . What we ’ re seeing is the consolidation is happening mainly through private equity groups picking up these small individual practices and trying to maximize profits and create efficiencies , but I think it ’ s at the risk of providing , to some degree , quality eye care and access back to people . Our purpose , what drives this company day in and day out , is to make sure people have access to quality care . I get worried about rapid consolidation and maximizing profits . It impacts what people ultimately get delivered to them .
So one of the areas we focused on quickly was an alternative to private equity . Our private practice doctors were asking VSP to come up with some kind of a solution , and we started a part of our company called VSP Ventures … in late 2019 , and since then , we ’ ve acquired 20 practices so far ; 11 of them are here in California . The doctors really love to get connected to Ventures because we preserve that doctor ’ s legacy . We leave their name on the door . Their patients still come in and get a similar experience . We ’ re not just driven strictly by efficiencies and , ultimately , dollars like some of the other consolidators ... out there . We also are adding additional tools and technology to help those practices .
The second change in our industry is around consumer expectations . … Consumers want ( access ) now . They want customization . They want a quicker turnaround time . They ’ re looking for better connections back to what their needs are , and VSP , with the data we have available to us , we can understand where consumer preferences are . We can help those doctors and practices identify what consumers truly want . …
Three out of four consumers — we do tons of research on this — prefer to see private practice doctors . But still 20 percent of them prefer a retail setting ,
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